80/20 Rule
It is interesting how many things in life apply the 80/20 theory as a rule of thumb. If you are unfamiliar with the rule, it is the same as the Pareto principle; the law of a vital few which states that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of the origins. The concept was developed to illustrate the income distribution and wealth among the population. For example, he opined that 20% owned approximately 80% of land in Italy
In Sales, 80% of sales come from 20% of buying customers and the same law can be applied in economics, relationships, science, business, software and data management. Previously in data management, 80% of data used to be structured while 20% was unstructured. Today, individuals are more connected digitally in the society using more devices. With this connected or networked society, there has been a reclassification of data, 80% is now unstructured, while 20% structured. This connectedness has given rise to the internet of things (IoT), a continued exponential growth in data, and that growth is expected to be in billions by 2021 with more devices being utilised. Organisations faced with this increasing amount of data, possibly lack the infrastructure and tools to succeed in the management of this big data, let alone their environment. The result is an increase in capital expenditure, lack of focus on their core business and cloud computing can help with this growing concern.
Ideal Scenario or Reverse
The perfect scenario for IT professionals is utilising 2/3 of their time on strategic goals, with the remaining 1/3 spent on managing core IT functions and infrastructure. In the real world, however, the reverse is the case as more time is being dedicated to infrastructure management, firefighting and less time on managing strategic goals. In my last Article, To Cloud or Not To Cloud?, I gave some reasons for businesses to go the cloud option route and listed some benefits of cloud computing, to C-level executives. Imagine you are an organisation faced with following two paths; one path leads to increase in capital expenditure, cost and more focus on core IT infrastructure management rather than core business, while the other path leads to turning from a capital expenditure-heavy model to an operational expenditure model with more focus on your core business. Which path would you follow?
Cloud Computing
So, let’s do a quick recap of what makes up Cloud computing; it comes in three positioning models which are Private, Public and Hybrid Cloud.
The private cloud refers to data centre infrastructure managed by organisations providing scalability, flexibility, automation and monitoring. It does offer an as-a-service to external customers but offers benefits of a cloud infrastructure without giving up control of their data centre.
The public cloud provides resources, services, storage and infrastructure over the internet, providing a high level of efficiency and economies of scale. This format uses a pay as you go model and users only get billed for what they consume.
The hybrid cloud provides a mixture of both public and private cloud. Organisations can use their internally managed private cloud as well as the public cloud also. They have the ability to move data from on-premise into and out of the cloud. And during peak periods, the workload can be moved to the public cloud. The idea of portability is supported, giving a lift and shift capability that allows movement between hybrid and public cloud when necessary, for different groups of users.
The cloud computing services models are, Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
Software as a Service (SaaS) is an on-demand model, where licensing and delivery are provided on a pay as you use model from the centrally hosted environment.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides users with a platform that enables consumers to develop and run software without the complexity of managing the infrastructure naturally associated with these types of developments.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offers virtualized computing resources over the internet. The service includes servers, storage, networking, hypervisors, operating systems and other computing resources. The IaaS powers both the PaaS and Saas, while also using the on-demand model. The general idea is for the IaaS to be able to run workloads in the cloud for instant value and productivity of the business.
Adoption
Accordingly, cloud computing makes sense for you and aligns with your business strategy, providing the advantage of cost savings, computational information reliability, meeting the increasing computational needs of business users and a centralised security which are all great.
And you chose “to cloud”. So now what?
Remember Pareto’s law? It also applies here. 20% of your users will make up for 80% utilisation of your solution which in this instance is the cloud. To tackle a possible low adoption rate, you need to look at the factors that would affect adoption from a business and business user’s point of view. Ease of use and reliability must be maintained to sustain the user and management’s interest, with security being a key concern providing business continuity, data protection and disaster recovery. Users need to be trained to help them understand the functional and technical view while gaining first-hand experience. It would also help to have a cloud champion or an evangelist for the initiative, spreading the word and telling it on it the mountain:
the cloud has arrived.
Organisations subjected to the same industry rules and government regulations show no significant differences. However, some have achieved more success than others, the tools and resources they use in achieving their strategic business goals are a major factor in their success.
